227 
on Dr. Jerdon's c Birds of India. 9 
a fine Parrakeet ( Palceornis calthrapee), with Athene castanotus, 
Toccus zingalensis ( verus) } Phcenicophaus pyrrhocephalus, Cen- 
tropus chlororhynchus , Megalcema flavifrons, Cissa ornata, Eulabes 
ptilogenys, Temenuchus albofrontatus, Garrulax cinereifrons, Me- 
ropicus atricapillus, and others, nearly all of which are peculiar 
to the mountainous part of the island, where also are many spe¬ 
cies which occur only on the highest grounds in Ceylon and 
those also of South India. Again, certain stragglers have been 
noticed on the island which have not yet been ascertained to 
occur in the peninsula of India, as Spizaetus nipalensis , Goi- 
sachius melanolophus , and Tringa albescens *; and it is likely, as 
before remarked, that more species will yet prove to inhabit alike 
the island and the southernmost part of the peninsula, for it is 
certain that neither the one nor the other has as yet been ade¬ 
quately explored. The Cinghalese avifauna is more particularly 
treated of in the sequel. 
From the base of the Himalaya to the sea there is a much 
greater amount of uniformity in the fauna of India than exists 
throughout that region as compared with the southern or Indian 
flank of the grand Himalayan chain. The sub-Himalayas, as Mr. 
Hodgson denominates the mountains which do not attain to the 
altitude of perpetual snow, have a vast number of genera, and 
even species, in common with the Indo-Chinese subregion, in¬ 
creasing in number eastward, which are unknown in India south 
of the Himalaya; while in a northerly direction there is a con¬ 
siderable influx of generic types, and even species, common to 
West Asia and Europe, and African types come up through 
South Arabia and Beluchistan to Sindh and Rajputana—the 
Indian desert territory. To extend the bounds of “ India ” be¬ 
yond the Himalayan snows, or the passes of the Sulimani chain, 
into Afghanistan, amounts to the confusion of all ideas of an 
Indian entity ; but the north-east boundary is less marked, and so 
few known species would need to have been added from the valley 
of the Brahmaputra and neighbouring hills, additional to those 
admitted from Sikhim and from Eastern Bengal, that, together 
with the Ceylon species, they would not have materially increased 
^ * Vide Swinhoe, in ‘ Ibis,’ 1864, p. 420. Goisachius melanolophus lias 
also been received from Ramri Island (Arakan). 
Q 2 
